He was waiting for a bus in frigid winds at around 3 p.m. when he decided to duck under a nearby bridge, according to his complaint published online by the Hamilton Spectator.

Green said he began to read emails on his phone when two police cars pulled out of a nearby parking lot and approached him. An officer in the first car rolled down his window and immediately asked him what he was doing.

Then the exchange became more and more confrontational, he told the newspaper.

"I had no intention of leaving the area, as I was waiting for a bus."

In his complaint, Green said an officer "repeatedly questioned" his credibility and acted in "an intimidating manner and continued to harass me even though it was clear I was not a suspect in any crime nor involved in criminal activity."

'What does a criminal look like?'

Green's family traces its roots back to the first African slaves to come to Canada.

Carding is a controversial police practice of collecting contact information by asking people to produce identification.

Matthew Green, a Hamilton city councillor, says he was carded by police on Tuesday. (Photo: Facebook)